I kind of braced myself for "imminent cringe" with this one, based on the weirdly sour takes people tend to have on it (mainly from fans of other 3D Mario games); I never had problems with the infamous Pachinko Machine or the Lilypad Reds when I was a kid, but I wondered if I just blocked it out of my memory or something. Upon this replay, however, I had 0 issues with Pachinko Machine and one death on Lilypad Reds, which gives Lilypad Reds a spot in a like 6-way tie in 2nd place for most deaths in this game (1), while first in most deaths is the deservedly infamous Pianta Village secret level with the Chucksters. "I'm a Chuckster!!" ... shudders. Anyways, after the main playthrough going for 100%, I died the most on Rico Harbor trying to get the red coins while surfing on the Blooper(?)
I think the "plot" is utterly ridiculous but it's also really funny, there's also a surprising amount of flavor text from all of the different Piantas and Nokis, with only a few points of "unfinished"-ness feeling from some of them still retaining their dialogue from the very beginning of the game despite events progressing. There's also this air of sarcasm in a couple exchanges, like the hotel owner on Serena Beach saying something along the lines of "We were hoping to trick you-- I mean, we were hoping you'd help us out in the hotel.", little things like that which I associate with this era of Nintendo, with quippy (witty?) dialogue like this peaking in Luigi's Mansion (imo). I highly encourage players to take their time and smell the roses here, there's a lot of nice little details in the dialogue that almost no other Mario games have attempted in this capacity since.
The controls are incredibly tight for Mario's base movement kit, with Fludd being used to varying degrees of success but one thing that's used here surprisingly a lot is the analog aspect of the triggers, it makes doing goo cleanup runs a lot easier when you have a gentle half-press of the trigger and can keep running with Fludd. While I think the movement kit makes up for it in a lot of ways, I do agree that not having a long jump is kind of a bummer, I don't think putting "strafe" in the game was remotely necessary and the mechanic is never utilized for anything specific. I still think it's an excellent kit overall though, with my only gripe being that needing to go to the boxes to swap nozzles is a bit of a drag; a quick-swap for unlocked nozzles in a stage would do wonders.
I generally really like the level design throughout, I appreciate that more than most Mario games these feel like places that are inhabited rather than glorified obstacle courses; something they've tried to casually lean into as "oh yeah of course everyone uses cannons and airships and slip pipes in casual day to day traversal" with games like 3D World and Odyssey (tho Odyssey balances it significantly better). I also appreciate that instead of just repeating SM64's thing, they did more with the individual shines, ranging from fairly minor to drastically different level-altering "episodes". The one thing that bugs me about the game progression-wise isn't necessarily the relatively "linear" level unlock progression compared to SM64, but having to just chase down Shadow Mario in every single stage to get to the finale is pretty lame; I'm not sure why they didn't just go with a shine sprite goal instead, especially since the Shadow Mario levels in the back half levels are pretty trivial. The worst level and shine is probably Gelato Beach and the Watermelon Festival shine. The Chuckster level is a close 2nd on principle alone. Pachinko and Lilypad haters are weak.
While I think the 100% is miserable, I'm not going to let that affect my rating here because I don't recommend most people do 100%s for Mario games anyways. They've always been mediocre at best and terrible at worst. Sunshine was a pleasantly surprising playthrough for me, maybe enhanced a bit by playing it at 60FPS, but I don't understand people screeching over stuff like the Pachinko Machine because Watchmojo made a top 10 worst Mario levels list 10 years ago or whatever. My favorite piece from the OST probably. Update: Actually this one lol
I think the "plot" is utterly ridiculous but it's also really funny, there's also a surprising amount of flavor text from all of the different Piantas and Nokis, with only a few points of "unfinished"-ness feeling from some of them still retaining their dialogue from the very beginning of the game despite events progressing. There's also this air of sarcasm in a couple exchanges, like the hotel owner on Serena Beach saying something along the lines of "We were hoping to trick you-- I mean, we were hoping you'd help us out in the hotel.", little things like that which I associate with this era of Nintendo, with quippy (witty?) dialogue like this peaking in Luigi's Mansion (imo). I highly encourage players to take their time and smell the roses here, there's a lot of nice little details in the dialogue that almost no other Mario games have attempted in this capacity since.
The controls are incredibly tight for Mario's base movement kit, with Fludd being used to varying degrees of success but one thing that's used here surprisingly a lot is the analog aspect of the triggers, it makes doing goo cleanup runs a lot easier when you have a gentle half-press of the trigger and can keep running with Fludd. While I think the movement kit makes up for it in a lot of ways, I do agree that not having a long jump is kind of a bummer, I don't think putting "strafe" in the game was remotely necessary and the mechanic is never utilized for anything specific. I still think it's an excellent kit overall though, with my only gripe being that needing to go to the boxes to swap nozzles is a bit of a drag; a quick-swap for unlocked nozzles in a stage would do wonders.
I generally really like the level design throughout, I appreciate that more than most Mario games these feel like places that are inhabited rather than glorified obstacle courses; something they've tried to casually lean into as "oh yeah of course everyone uses cannons and airships and slip pipes in casual day to day traversal" with games like 3D World and Odyssey (tho Odyssey balances it significantly better). I also appreciate that instead of just repeating SM64's thing, they did more with the individual shines, ranging from fairly minor to drastically different level-altering "episodes". The one thing that bugs me about the game progression-wise isn't necessarily the relatively "linear" level unlock progression compared to SM64, but having to just chase down Shadow Mario in every single stage to get to the finale is pretty lame; I'm not sure why they didn't just go with a shine sprite goal instead, especially since the Shadow Mario levels in the back half levels are pretty trivial. The worst level and shine is probably Gelato Beach and the Watermelon Festival shine. The Chuckster level is a close 2nd on principle alone. Pachinko and Lilypad haters are weak.
While I think the 100% is miserable, I'm not going to let that affect my rating here because I don't recommend most people do 100%s for Mario games anyways. They've always been mediocre at best and terrible at worst. Sunshine was a pleasantly surprising playthrough for me, maybe enhanced a bit by playing it at 60FPS, but I don't understand people screeching over stuff like the Pachinko Machine because Watchmojo made a top 10 worst Mario levels list 10 years ago or whatever. My favorite piece from the OST probably. Update: Actually this one lol